AUSTIN WINGATE CURTIS

The old rule of thumb farming, which was marked by drudgery and
waste, is giving way to the new agriculture in which intelligence
and efficiency count just as they do in other lines of business. In
other words, farming is gradually becoming scientific. The
chemistry of the soil, seed selection, crop rotation,
fertilization, the crossing and breeding up of farm animals and the
conservation of what was formerly waste all open up new and
interesting fields of endeavor. The schools were slow to
incorporate this line of work in their curricula, but now nearly
every state has either its college of agriculture or an
agricultural department in one or more of its state schools. At the
West Virginia Collegiate Institute the Agricultural department is
under the direction of Prof. Austin Wingate Curtis. Already we have
had occasion to note in these pages the large number of successful
professional and business men of the race who claim the Old North
State as the land of their nativity--Tar Heels, they are sometimes
called. Prof. Curtis was born at Wilmington, N. C., on May 17,
1872, son of Austin Curtis, a gardener, who was the son of
Alexander Curtis. The mother of Prof. Curtis was, before her
marriage, Margaret Ann Wingate, daughter of Susie Wingate.

Young Curtis laid the foundation of his education in the Raleigh
schools from which he passed to the St. Augustine Normal School
also at Raleigh. He spent four years at the North Carolina
Experiment Station at Raleigh, N. C. Later he matriculated at the
N. C. A. & T. College at Greensboro, from which he was
graduated in 1899. He has the B. S. Agri. and M. of Agriculture
degrees from that institution. He also did summer work at Cornell
University. He was under the necessity of making his own way in
school but with characteristic North Carolina patience and
perseverance he refused to be discouraged till he was equipped to
do first class work in his chosen profession.

In the fall of 1899, following his graduation in the spring of
the same year, he came to Institute as Professor of Agriculture at
the Collegiate Institute and has been at the head of the department
for 23 years. In fact, it may be said that he created the
department.

Some of the outstanding accomplishments of Mr. Curtis are the
introduction of new crops, tile drainage, use of lime and the
marked improvement in the fertility of the soil.

Land that would not yield 15 bushels of corn per acre is now
producing 70 to 80 bushels per acre.

Soil that would not grow clover is now yielding three tons per
acre.

On December 20, 1905, Prof. Curtis married Miss Dora Thorne
Brown, daughter of W. S. and Alice C. Brown., Mrs. Curtis was
before her marriage an accomplished teacher. They have two
children, a girl and a boy. The girl's name is Alice Cabell Curtis,
while the son is named for his father, Austin Wingate, Jr.

Among the secret and benevolent orders, he belongs to the A. F.
and A. M. of which he is a P. G. M. of W. Va. In politics he is a
Republican, in religion a Methodist. He is a trustee in his local
church and was formerly Superintendent of the Sunday School. Prof.
Curtis is a life member of the Association of Teachers in Colored
Schools, also life member of the association for the Study of Negro
life and history and was President of the West Virginia Teachers
Association 1917-18. His favorite reading is along scientific
lines.